Grow Your Audience and Make More Money by Giving Your Book Away for Free
by D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed.
There is a very exciting trend storming across the Internet that allows authors to reach more people and sell a lot more books, while giving their books away for free! You may be wondering, “How do I make more money by giving my book away for free?” That is what I’ll be addressing in this article.
Amazon: The 800 Pound Gorilla for Authors
Amazon is considered to be the #1 place for authors to sell their books. It gives you access to an international audience and provides readers with the ability to purchase your book and have it mailed to them. In addition to print books, Amazon has become famous for their Kindle eBooks. When readers purchase the Kindle version of a book, they gain immediate access to it on their Kindle eReading device or on a Kindle App for their cell phone, tablet, or computer.
With this type of “immediate gratification,” it is no wonder that readers are willing to pay for an electronic version of a book. In fact, Amazon reports that Kindle book sales continue to overtake print book sales! According to a Guardian News report on August 5, 2012, “Amazon said that two years after introducing the Kindle, customers are now buying more eBooks than all hardcovers and paperbacks combined. According to unaudited figures released by the company on Monday, since the start of 2012, for every 100 hardback and paperback book sold on its site, customers downloaded 114 eBooks.”
Introducing Kindle Select
With such great interest in Kindle eBooks, Amazon has developed programs to help promote Kindle eBook sales. One such program is called the KDP Select program. The KDP Select program allows authors to enroll the Kindle version of their book into this special program, for 90 days at a time. During these 90 days, your book is eligible to be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library where you can earn a share of Amazon’s dedicated six million dollar annual fund, based on how frequently your book is borrowed. Even though your book is available in the Kindle lending library, it is still available for purchase on Amazon.
According to Amazon, here is a description of how the fund is distributed. “Your share of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Fund is calculated based on a share of the total number of qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles. For example, if the monthly fund amount is $500,000, the total qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles is 100,000, and your book was borrowed 1,500 times, you will earn 1.5% (1,500/100,000 = 1.5%), or $7,500 for that month.”
Another feature of the KDP Select program is that authors can select five days in which their book is available for free. The number one question on this topic seems to be, “Why would I want to give my book away for free and how will that help me make more money with my book.
Why Would an Author Want to Loan or Give Away Their Kindle eBook for Free?
By participating in the KDP Select program, you have the opportunity to offer enrolled books for free, for up to 5 days every 90 days. These days can be sequential or spread out over the 90-day period, it is up to the author.
If you are wondering how you can benefit by giving your book for free, here are a few points to ponder:
- By enrolling in the KPD Select program, your book becomes part of the Kindle Lending Library and you earn a portion of Amazon’s dedicated six million dollar annual fund.
- You have the opportunity to reach new audiences, around the globe. This will allow you to grow your readership and reach people interested in your topic.
- You increase the odds of people purchasing your book once they are done borrowing it.
- During your “free days” readers will not only view your free book(s), they’ll have the opportunity to see all of the books you’ve published. This could increase the number of purchases of your other titles.
Enrolling in the KDP Select Program
In order for authors to participate in the KDP Select program, they must agree to have the eBook version of their book available exclusively on Amazon, while they are enrolled in the renewable 90-day program.
It is important to note that the default setting is to have this 90-day period automatically renewed. It is quite easy however to adjust this option to manually renew, once your book has been enrolled in the program. To make this adjustment, go to the book’s “Edit book details” page and uncheck the box next to “Automatically renew this book’s enrollment in KDP Select for another 90 days.” You can do this at any time and making this adjustment does not in any way affect your book’s current enrollment in KDP Select program.
Join in the Conversation
Have you participated in the KDP Select program? If so, what is the number one tip you can share with our readers. Scroll down to share your suggestion.
Are you intrigued by this opportunity to reach more readers and earn more money with your book? Scroll down to share our thoughts, ideas, and questions.
Here’s to your success!
D’vorah
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D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., is the bestselling author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online.
She is the founder of the Book Marketing Made Easy Academy and the Producer of the Annual Book Marketing Conference Online. D’vorah’s flagship course, Virtual Book Tours Made Easy, has been taught to hundreds of authors and virtual assistants across the globe.
To connect with D’vorah and claim your free copy of the action-packed guide: 7 Tips for Maximizing Your Own Blog Tour, head over to: http://www.bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/center/idevaffiliate.php?id=196_16_3_10
6 Responses
Been using KDP on all of my books and I love it. I have to say that it has not been as effective in increasing rankings lately as it was back in February.
But if your book is good and leads them to want more, the conversions to website visitors is amazing!
Having great results. Thanks for sharing this post.
I am in the KDP Select program and to date I have not mastered the ability to give away books for free. I was able to give away my first book to 611 people in 3 days. That took a lot of Twittering, Yahoo Groups, Google + and more.
Coach Comeback, you are so right about the algorithms on Amazon being much different than they were even six months ago.
George, 611 books in three days is pretty impressive. It does take a lot of networking and promoting.
I heard of this great strategy from a NY Times bestselling author. He creates a “book promo club” with this “tribe.” They receive some great benefits by being part of the team. They help with Tweeting, etc., blog posts, listing on the various giveaway sites, etc.
What I’m doing for my series of books that I’ll be listing, is publishing a book on a specific day of the week (or day of the month) and conditioning my audience to look for the announcements and heading over to Amazon.
If you have any tips you’d like to share, I’d love to see them and I’m sure our readers would appreciate them as well. Thanks for your input!
Would this also work for fiction ebooks?
It sure would work for Fiction book! In fact, Amazon sells many more fiction books than nonfiction books. The thing is, you’ll want to promote your book to audiences interested in your topic or genre.
Think outside of the box. For example, if your novel takes place on a river in Canada. It can appeal to people who love fishing and live in Canada. Search for forums and groups that attract your target audience. Interact with them and build relationships. It will come up that you have published a book.
With this in mind, it’s always a good idea to give yourself several months to plan for your book launch. Your focus can be on building relationships so that when your book is ready to launch, you have an “army” of raving fans, ready to help you promote it!
All the best,
D’vorah
Jim, thanks for the opportunity to be a guest blogger on your site. Looking forward to sharing ideas and answering questions with your readers.